OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present work was to study the prevention of liver cancer angiogenesis via miR-126. For this purpose, experimentations were conducted. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The precursor sequence of miR-126 was amplified in the DNA of human liver cancer cell lines. We, therefore, constructed the overexpression and interference vectors of miR-126 in vitro; which were respectively transferred to liver cancer cells in the logarithmic phase and inoculated under both sides of the back skin of Balb/c-nu nude mice aged 4-6 weeks with 10 mu l (1 x 105) cell suspension...

Heterologous production of recombinant proteins is a cornerstone of microbiological and biochemical research as well as various biotechnological processes. Yields and quality of produced proteins have a tremendous impact on structural and enzymology studies, development of new biopharmaceuticals and establishing new biocatalytic processes. Majority of current protocols for recombinant protein expression in Escherichia coli exploit batch cultures with complex media, often providing low yields of the target protein due to oxygen transfer limitation, rapid depletion of carbon sources, and pH changes during the cultivation...

DNA synthesis in the Bacillus subtilis cells has become possible using extra-cellular DNA. Generally, purified DNAs in a test tube have been required to introduce into the host cells for molecular cloning technology in the laboratory. We have developed a cell lysis technique for natural transformation using stable extra-cellular plasmid DNAs, in which the extra-cellular plasmid DNAs are released from lysed Escherichia coli cells. DNA synthesis then proceeds by fragment assembly using the stable extracellular DNAs, without biochemical purification...

SeedStor (https://www.seedstor.ac.uk) acts as the publicly available database for the seed collections held by the Germplasm Resources Unit (GRU) based at the John Inness Centre, Norwich, UK. The GRU is a national capability supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The GRU curates' germplasm collections of a range of temperate cereal, legume and Brassica crops and their associated wild relatives as well as precise genetic stocks, near-isogenic lines and mapping populations...

Neisseria meningitidis Group X is an emerging cause of bacterial meningitis in the Sub-Saharan Africa. The capsular polysaccharide of Group X is a homopolymer of N-acetylglucosamine α(1-4) phosphate and is a vaccine target for prevention of disease associated with this meningococcal serogroup. We have demonstrated previously that the formation of the polymer is catalyzed by a phosphotransferase which transfers N- acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate from UDP-N-acetylglucosamine to the 4- hydroxyl of the N-acetylglucosamine on the non-reducing end of the growing chain...

Mobile genetic elements (MGE) such as plasmids and transposons mobilise genes within and between species, playing a crucial role in bacterial evolution via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Currently we lack data on variation in MGE dynamics across bacterial host species. We tracked the dynamics of a large conjugative plasmid, pQBR103, and its Tn5042 mercury resistance transposon, in five diverse Pseudomonas species in environments with and without mercury selection. Plasmid fitness effects and stability varied extensively between host species and environments, as did the propensity for chromosomal capture of the Tn5042 mercury resistance transposon associated with loss of the plasmid...

The classical approach for cultivation of neutrophilic microaerophilic Fe(II)-oxidizing bacteria are agar-based gradient tubes where these bacteria find optimal growth conditions in opposing gradients of oxygen (O2) and dissolved Fe(II) (Fe2+). The goals of this study were to quantify the temporal development of O2 and Fe2+ concentrations over time, to compare abiotic and microbially-inoculated tubes, and to test the suitability of different Fe(II)-sources for cultivation of freshwater and marine microaerophilic Fe(II)-oxidizers...

Extracellular nucleic acids of high molecular weight are detected ubiquitously in seawater. Recent studies have indicated that these nucleic acids are, at least in part, derived from active production by some bacteria. The marine bacterium Rhodovulum sulfidophilum is one of those bacteria. Rdv. sulfidophilum is a non-sulfur phototrophic marine bacterium, which is known to form flocs, structured communities of cells, and to produce extracellular nucleic acids in culture media. Recently, it has been revealed that this bacterium produces gene transfer agent-like particles and that this particle production may be related to the extracellular nucleic acid production mechanism...

Introduction: There is a continuing worldwide shortage of organs from deceased human donors for transplantation into patients with end-stage organ failure. Genetically engineered pigs could resolve this problem, and could also provide tissues and cells for the treatment of conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson's disease and corneal blindness. Sources of data: The current literature has been reviewed. Areas of agreement: The pathobiologic barriers are now largely defined...

There is considerable global evidence on the effectiveness of cash transfers in improving health and nutrition outcomes; however, the evidence from South Asia, particularly India, is limited. In the context of India where more than a third of children are undernourished, and where there is considerable under-utilization of health and nutrition interventions, it is opportune to investigate the impact of cash transfer programs on the use of interventions. We study one conditional cash transfer program, Mamata scheme, implemented in the state of Odisha, in India that targeted pregnant and lactating women...

Infertility and subfertility negatively impact the economics and reproductive performance of cattle. Of note, significant pregnancy loss occurs in cattle during the first month of pregnancy, yet little is known about the genetic loci influencing pregnancy success and loss in cattle. To identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) with large effects associated with early pregnancy loss, Angus crossbred heifers were classified based on day 28 pregnancy outcomes to serial embryo transfer. A genome wide association analysis (GWAA) was conducted comparing 30 high fertility heifers with 100% success in establishing pregnancy to 55 subfertile heifers with 25% or less success...

Vascular plants serve as target species for the evaluation of restoration success as they account for most of the plant species diversity and vegetation cover. Although bryophytes contribute considerably to the species diversity of meadows, they are rarely addressed in restoration projects. This project is a first step toward making recommendations for including mosses in alluvial floodplain restoration projects. The opportunity to assess the diversity and ecological requirements of mosses on floodplain meadows presented itself within the framework of a vegetation monitoring that took place in 2014 on meadows located along the northern Upper Rhine...

Using the transfer matrix method, the authors combine the analytical formula with numerical calculation to explore the shot noise and the conductance of massless Weyl fermions in the Weyl semimetal resonant junction. By varying the barrier strength, the structure of the junction, the Fermi energy and the crystallographic angle, the shot noise and the conductance can be tuned efficiently. For a quasiperiodic supperlattice, in complete contrast to the conventional junction case, the effect of the disorder strength on the shot noise and the conductance depends on the competition of the classical tunneling and the Klein tunneling...

The influences of caffeine, lysozyme and the joint application of them on the hepatoma cell line HepG2 proliferation inhibition and cell apoptosis were observed by 3-(4, 5-dimethyl-2-thiazyl)-2, 5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide assay and Hoechst 33342, which showed the proliferation inhibition rate of the joint application on HepG2 cells was 47.21%, significantly higher than caffeine or lysozyme, and the joint application promoted the apoptosis of HepG2 cells obviously. Van't Hoff classical thermodynamics formula, the Föster theory of non-radiation energy transfer and fluorescence phase diagram were used to manifest that the process of lysozyme binding to caffeine followed a two-state model, which was spontaneous at low temperature driven by enthalpy change, and the predominant intermolecular force was hydrogen bonding or Van der Waals force to stabilize caffeine-lysozyme complex with the distance 5...

Increasing manufacture and usage of chemicals have not been matched by the increase in our understanding of their risks. Pollutant release and transfer register (PRTR) is becoming a popular measure for collecting chemical data and enhancing the public right to know. However, these data are usually in high dimensionality which restricts their wider use. The present study partitions Japanese PRTR chemicals into five fuzzy clusters by fuzzy c-mean clustering (FCM) to explore the implicit information. Each chemical with membership degrees belongs to each cluster...

In this work, the novel ternary AgBr/Ag/PbBiO2Br Z-scheme photocatalysts were synthesized via a CTAB-assisted calcination process. The AgBr/Ag/PbBiO2Br composites were employed for the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) and antibiotic bisphenol A (BPA) under visible light irradiation. Results showed that the obtained AgBr/Ag-3/PbBiO2Br displayed optimal photocatalytic performance, which could remove almost all RhB within 25 min and effectively decompose 82.3% of BPA in 120 min. Three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectra (3D EEMs) were utilized for the purposes of fully grasping the behaviors of RhB molecules during the reaction process...

Soil-to-plant transfer factor (TF) is widely used to assess the impact of soil radioactivity on agricultural crops. The root crop cassava (Manihot esculenta) provides 30%-50% of the calories consumed in Sub-Saharan Africa and is widely used in South America. γ-ray analysis was used to measure activity concentrations of 238U, 232Th, and 40K in cassava root and soil. The TF values for 238U, 232Th, and 40K were in the range 0.06-0.12, 0.01-0.10 and 0.04-0.28 respectively. The median transfer factors were 0.10 (238U), 0...